Divine ovine

Rowley Leigh prepares paschal lamb

Rowley Leigh

12:01AM BST 16 Apr 2003

My lamb year starts in the far north. The earliest lamb we serve at the restaurant comes from a lunatic friend of mine by the name of Michael Wigan. Shortly after Hogmanay, his lambs, born at the end of summer in the wilds of Sutherland, have reached a decent weight. Slow weight gain, a diet of pure grass and the harshness of the climate combine to produce a meat that is tight-grained, sweet and intensely flavoured.

My next port of call (sensitive readers may want to skip this paragraph) is to the Pyrenees, where Madame Malli tends her little flock. Her lambs feed on their mothers' milk and gambol in the pastures of the Béarn before their sweet lives come to an early conclusion. Their meat is exquisite - pale, tender and delicate. Baby lamb such as this is the true paschal lamb, the Easter lamb of the early Christians, borrowing from the Jewish passover and at the same time part of a larger Semitic tradition (lamb in the Maghreb or the Middle East is, by definition, milk-fed, for they have no grass).

Southern England is the next to arrive. This is 'new season' lamb, born indoors and, ideally, brought swiftly to a good size on lush spring grass. Whether a supermarket lamb will have seen a blade of grass is a moot point, but the best English downland grass-fed lamb is the envy of the gastronomic world: plump, sweet and juicy. Gallic friends who deride the use of mint sauce do so not on grounds of taste - both vinegar and mint are paired with lamb in Spain, Italy, Morocco and in the Middle East - but out of sour grapes.

As the ovine year progresses, the new season moves northwards, to Wales, to the Peaks, to my wife's cousin by marriage in the Solway Firth, to Tom Lowther's Herdwick flock in Westmoreland. Before we know it, Wigan will be on the phone again telling me my customers must be missing his lamb.

Related Articles

A blanquette is the most comforting and delicious of stews and very simple to make: I cannot understand why it should now be such a rarity, even on restaurant menus.

1 shoulder of new-season lamb, cut into 2cm (1in) cubes

1 onion, studded with 6 cloves

2 carrots, peeled

1 stick of celery

bouquet garni (parsley, thyme and bayleaf tied together)

2 bunches of spring onions

75g (23/4oz) butter

50g (13/4oz) flour

20 leaves of mint

100 ml (31/2fl oz) double cream

a little lemon juice

Put the meat into a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Throw this water away, cover the meat with cold water again and bring it back to the boil. Add the onion, the whole carrots, celery and the bouquet garni. Poach the meat on the gentlest of heat for about an hour and a half, or until it is truly tender.

While the meat cooks, trim the spring onions at the base and cut off the green tips, leaving a bulb and shoot about 10cm (4in) long. Put these in a saucepan with a third of the butter and a tablespoon of water. Cover these with a piece of buttered paper and stew gently for 15 minutes or until tender, then allow to cool. Mix the flour and the remaining (softened) butter to a smooth paste.

When the meat is cooked, remove and discard the vegetables and lift out the meat. Whisk in the butter and flour mixture into the stock and return to the boil. Add the meat, the onions and the mint leaves, very finely shredded. Add the cream, a squeeze of lemon and some milled pepper, check the seasoning and serve. This unctuous and sophisticated nursery food cries out for a rice pilaff.

Roast shoulder and breast of lamb with persillade (serves six)

Ask the butcher to bone and roll the shoulder of lamb - and to chop up the bones, too. If this is not possible, the meat can be cooked on the bone, though it will be harder to carve and need to be braised in a little of the sauce, to provide more flavour.

A leg of lamb would make an excellent, if extravagant, alternative.

1 shoulder of lamb, weighing 2-2.5kg (4lb 8oz-5lb 8oz)

1 breast of lamb, approximately 2 kg (4lb 8oz)

2 carrots

1 onion

1 stick of celery

1 bulb of garlic

1 dsp tomato purée

500ml (18 fl oz) lamb or chicken stock (or use a cube)

150 ml white wine

1 sprig of thyme or rosemary

125g (41/2oz) stale white bread for crumbs

1 bunch of parsley, curly or flat

dijon mustard

Rub the shoulder and the breast well with salt and pepper and surround with the chopped bones in a large roasting-tin. Place in a hot oven (240°C/450°F/gas mark 8).

Remove the shoulder after 30 minutes. Test with a meat thermometer or needle: the centre of the joint should be cool but not cold, and the meat rare.

Leaving the breast and bones in the tin, pour out almost all the fat, and around the meat add the carrot, onion, celery and half the garlic, all coarsely chopped. Continue cooking for another 20 minutes, so that the meat is cooked through and the vegetables nicely browned. Remove the breast from the tin.

To make the gravy, add the tomato purée to the tin and, unless you have fresh stock, half a chicken or lamb stock cube, then deglaze with a glass of white wine, scraping up the caramelised juices. Cover with stock or water, add a little thyme or rosemary and cook for 10-15 minutes.

While the meat has been roasting, you should have made the persillade. If the stale bread has been broken up and dried in the oven, it can be turned to breadcrumbs in seconds with a rolling-pin. Wash and finely chop the parsley. The garlic - two or three cloves - must also be chopped very finely, then crushed: a sprinkling of salt and some heavy work with the flat of the knife will help the process along. Mix the garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs well.

To finish, smear the cool meat all over with mustard and then roll thoroughly in the breadcrumb mixture, pressing it on by hand. Return the meat to a hot oven and give it a good ten minutes, then test the shoulder again with the needle: this time it should be warm at the centre, and the meat should have come on to a perfect, rosy medium rare.

Strain the gravy, having added any juices that issued from the joint while it was resting and during its second cooking stage. Carve the breast down between the ribs, giving each person two ribs and a slice of the shoulder.

Rowley Leigh is the chef at Kensington Place, 201 Kensington Church Street, London W8 (020-7727 3184)